Shane Van Gisbergen to pilot MCA S13 Silvia at WTAC 2014

After finishing runner-up in 2013 behind Tilton Interiors, the Queensland-based MCA suspension team are pulling out all stops for a rear wheel drive assault on the outright position in 2014. With Earl Bamber now contracted to the factory Porsche Supercup team the MCA guys were on the hunt for a driver of similar calibre and it appears that Kiwi V8 Supercar star Shane Van Gisbergen jumped at the opportunity to drive the Hammerhead.


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Kiwi V8 Supercar star Shane Van Gisbergen will drive MCA’s Hammerhead S13 at this year’s WTAC.


“I can’t wait!” said Shane “the times these cars are doing on radial tyres is just plain nuts, and driving on the absolute limit is where I am most comfortable. With time attack racing there is no need to preserve the car or tyres like in an enduro, it is just get in and drive the absolute wheels off it from go to whoa which suits me just fine.”


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With Shane’s daily driver being an S15 he will feel right at home behind the wheel of MCA’s S13.


“Plus, to be honest, I have a bit of a Silvia thing going on as my road/track day car in New Zealand is an S15. So yeah, I am really looking forward to it… The times these cars are doing are just plain nuts and driving one on the absolute limit suits me fine!”

And there are plenty of other changes going on before the car hits the track too. “These cars are always a work in progress” said Murray Coote “every year we come back home with more data and fresh ideas and we then have a whole year to make the changes before we come back down and try again.”


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“This year we will be moving the engine back the maximum allowable amount and moving some parts around to aid with weight distribution.” said Josh Coote “and we are looking at replacing some of the front and rear sections with tube to get the weight down, making some small aero changes but the biggest change will be switching to the billet block.”


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“We made the decision to go with the billet engine block in the interests of reliability” added Murray “the standard aluminum SR20 block is a weak link and I’m sure we are close to finding its breaking point. So we spoke with the guys at Bullet Cylinder Heads in Adelaide and they were more than happy to be involved. They create these blocks from a solid lump of alloy. Up until now these have mostly been used in drag racing but they certainly are a work of art. This change should allow us to wind some more power in should we need to”


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Murray was also philosophical about competing with all-wheel-drive cars in a twenty five year old S chassis. When we asked if he thought he could beat Tilton he replied “Well we have gotten faster every year, I guess it depends on how much faster they go this year, if they in fact do go faster.”


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“As Nemo found out last year, once things go wrong it can all fall apart pretty quickly. If the weather is on our side and we can get all the ducks in a row we will have a shot at it, but, once again you never know, someone else may even appear out of nowhere with a new rocketship that blows everyone away!”


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“That’s the sport of Time Attack racing and these things have happened before! Who knows how much faster Suzuki will be this year? So to answer your question, yes, it is possible for a rear wheel drive to beat an all-wheel drive but the conditions would have to be perfect.”


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LINKS:
www.yokohama.com.au
www.worldtimeattack.com